Injury & Violence Prevention INdepth
Injury & Violence Prevention INdepth is a podcast brought to you by Safe States Alliance staff and members to discuss and share injury and violence prevention (IVP) topics and trends. Each episode is a conversation between host, Mighty Fine, and featured IVP professionals who are members or partners of our organization. We come together to discuss the basics of injury and violence prevention, but also the tough topics that relate to anti-racism, health equity and more.
Injury & Violence Prevention INdepth
Increasing Partnerships & Possibilities through Upstream Prevention
In this episode, host Mighty Fine talks with Safe States staff Eva Bland and Catherine Guerrero about the upstream prevention work happening among Safe States members. Also, they share resources available on the Safe States website to assist those working on upstream prevention work.
RESOURCES:
Welcome to the IVP INdepth podcast, a Safe States Alliance production. I'm your host, Mighty Fine, and I'm thrilled to have you here. This is a space where injury and violence prevention professionals come together to share ideas, spark conversation, and dive into some of the most pressing topics shaping the field. Whether you're here to stay in the loop, find inspiration, or to be part of a community that wants to make a difference. You're in the right place. On today's episode, I'm so excited because I'll be joined by my colleagues at the Safe States Alliance, and they'll talk about some of the work that they're doing to promote shared risk and protective factors. All right, folks, I know you all are probably like, Mighty says he's excited every episode, but really, I'm truly excited because I'm joined by two of my colleagues at Safe States Alliance, and having been a longtime member, it's always exciting when I have an opportunity to share space with them. So with that, I will ask them to introduce themselves and Eva, let's start with you. Tell us who you are, your role and what you do at Safe States?
Eva Bland:Yeah, sure. I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Long time listener of the podcast. So I am Associate Director of Workforce Development and Training at Safe States. I just have my seven year anniversary with Safe States. And in my position, I kind of oversee all of the different training components that we do. I help with the development of different resources so anything from STAT or I've worked on Core Components and the Core Competencies of IVP. And I also oversee our annual conference, so a lot of listeners probably recognize my name from that specifically. And then I also get to work on a lot of our shared risk and protective factor work, and just how we think about upstream prevention in general. I do a lot of work around that. So happy to be here today.
Mighty Fine:Great. Happy to have you and Catherine, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself.
Catherine Guerrero:Thank you for having me. I am Catherine Guerrero, and I am the Deputy Director for Safe States. I've been here just a little bit of time, just about four months, but I've worked with Safe States for almost a decade now, in different ways, partnering on projects around upstream prevention. So my role, I work closely with Eva and the other program managers at Safe States to do a lot of work on grant writing and kind of program development, those kinds of things. So very excited to be here.
Mighty Fine:So again, welcome to you both, and thanks again for being here. I'm looking forward to the conversation today, and you know, I'm just going to come out the gate with it right.As we all are seeing and participating and looking at the public health landscape, we recognize that resources are becoming more constrained, and there's, in my opinion, a need for greater collaboration and integration of the work that we do across topics or subjects, what have you, and that's broadly in public health and certainly in injury and violence prevention. So thinking about this need for connecting our work, I'm curious to learn from you all what is Safe States doing to showcase the overlap of the topics that you all are addressing.
Catherine Guerrero:I mean, clearly the context in which we do our work is changing. The landscape is changing. And I think there are a lot of, you know, obvious reasons or reasons that are clear to us. But I also think, as you know, for a while now, Safe States has been thinking about, you know, kind of how to, how to increase the potential impact of our work across multiple public health issues. So how do we do what we do, but think less narrowly and in, in how we how we're looking at impact. And one of the ways we do that, we use this phrase upstream prevention a lot, right? But we're trying to think about more about root causes, or, you know, kind of, kind of looking at risk and protection, looking at things that make us more likely to experience a negative public health event, or or things that protect us from either experiencing something or the impact of experiencing something negative, and so thinking about approaches where we have those shared upstream issues, or shared risk and protection, as we like to say, so, so places where we can consider new partners, places where we can look at program impacts that. Would impact more than one public health issue. So so really, that's how we've been thinking about and thinking about our work, talking about our work, and then working with, you know, our partners at the state and local level to think about what does programming look like if we're trying to impact the context of someone's life in a way that that might increase the likelihood that they'll put a seat belt on, and also decrease the likelihood that they'll be a victim of violence, right? So we're trying to look across those public health issues in our work as we go forward now.
Mighty Fine:Got it
Eva Bland:Yeah, and I'll just add to that in terms of what Safe States has been doing. You know, we've really been trying to create resources and case studies and provide stories of what this actually looks like in the field. Because there's, there are people doing this work, and they've been doing this work for a really long time, and we really want to highlight, you know what, what different states are doing, what different programs are doing in terms of upstream prevention and provide real life examples of what that looks like, anywhere from how we are thinking about evaluation and this shared kind of viewpoint that Catherine talked about, or as we think about funding priorities and think about it from a blended and braiding standpoint, these are things that you know, we at Safe States are trying to provide resources for to help make it more accessible to people, a little bit more understandable to people. But it's certainly something we think about a lot,
Mighty Fine:Absolutely, so, building off of what you both shared thinking about sort of upstream prevention, this shared responsibility, in some ways, our shared risk and protective factors, or different ways we can splice it. How is that reframing how we think about prevention and the strategies that are associated with that?
Catherine Guerrero:Yeah, I mean, you know, historically, we, you know, we, we spent a lot of years, right, going into schools and talking to individual kids, or, you know, high intensity program development efforts that we did for so long. And I think, you know, one of the thing that this approach does is, you know, it moves us. I mean, whether you call it shared risk, protective factors or public health 3.0 or, you know, whatever the jargon is, I think the goal is right is to have an impact on the context of people's lives, right? So, so what are the things that we can change around about environments that support health, right? So access to safe, stable housing or access to behavioral health care, and when we do that, right, we could also make it easier for people to make decisions that that result in better health outcomes, right? So when we, you know, when we take, we work to take economic stress off of families. You know, we can. We can then create circumstances where we see lower rates of overdose, or we see, you know, so really it's we're looking at the wider environment that people live in, not just the individual behavior. And that's a that's a pretty significant change in how we have thought about prevention for a long time. Eva, I don't know if you want to, if you want to add anything to add anything to that, I think there are a lot of practical implications about how we think about partners, about how we think about the things that you talked about in terms of braiding and blending funding.
Eva Bland:Yeah, I was going to add, I think this the way that we're thinking about it too, really expands how we think about partnerships, both, you know, partners within our organization and across sectors, across divisions. So having this, this larger shared approach towards thinking about a protect whether it's a protective factor or risk factor, that allows us to work with more partners and to think about them and as at the table with us. So that's definitely something that is been in our mind, as well as thinking about how we can expand our partnerships. Yeah, so, and thinking about what you shared.
Mighty Fine:Catherine, you talked about sort of this wider environment and looking beyond the individual. So you really teed up my next question quite well. And Eva, you also talked about expanding partnerships and the like. So thinking about health equity, right? How does that fit into this shared and risk Protective Factors approach?
Catherine Guerrero:Yeah, well, I mean, you know, equity is pretty central to the way that we do our work, or want to, want to think about our work, right? So the the lens that we're always applying this, this idea of structural, kind of structural change resulting in better health, or, I mean, that we're, we're talking this way in public health now, but communities have been talking this way for a long time, right like so. So we can repackage a lot of ideas, or we can build on ideas. Those ideas have been existing, right? In the ways that communities view themselves, the way that communities talk about themselves, right? This, this idea of an individual is not, is really not how a lot of communities operate or reflect on themselves, and so, so it's really us catching up, right? And it's really us thinking about, what are the ways that that, again, we can, we can remove the structural barriers to health and to well being, which is, you know, whether you call it health equity, whether you call it, you know, whichever jargon you pick, right? I mean, I think the aims are the same there, right? And looking at strategies that are that are relevant and particular to populations or to communities or to neighborhoods, becomes much more it becomes much more central to the prevention strategy when you approach it from this kind of lens. Eva, I don't know if you want to add to that, but it, I mean, it changes all the partners, right? I mean, again, to what Eva just spoke to you in terms of how we think about how we think about the public as a partner in public health, right? So, you know, with it, this is, this isn't a two way street, right? It is a, it's kind of a co creation of what health and well being look like, which is a different way, I think, of approach than we used to, where we just come into communities and deliver a program, right?
Mighty Fine:Yeah. And I think you, the part that really stuck out to me that you mentioned is that it's thinking beyond the individual, right? Because we know this narrow focus on the individuals, the antithesis of a health equity approach, and even even looking at shared risk and protective factors, we recognize that there are some nuances there, and as you alluded to, having a health equity approach allows us to have an appreciation for those differences and address them accordingly. And Evayou were going to say some something.
Eva Bland:yeah, no, I was just going to add well, feeding off of what you just said. Mighty I think the most you know, one of the things that I think about with this work is how central health equity is to how we do our injury and violence prevention work. It's central to how we think about Yes, our programs and our strategies, but it should be centralized in everything we do, including the partners that we include at the table, the data that we're looking at. It truly is central to this work. So I think sometimes people get caught up in jargon. They get caught up in well, how does this concept relate to that concept relate to this concept? And I think, you know, at, you know, at the end of the day, they are all connected. And, you know, I don't, I if we could throw the jargon out. If we could just talk about what's really happening and what really is moving the work. You know, I think that would be helpful in some ways. I agree, because sometimes the jargon is limiting, right? Because folks may have different definitions of what it means, and ostensibly we should all have that same desired outcome, right? We want folks to be able to live the best, healthiest lives. By was gonna say, by any means necessary. I don't know if I mean, I think you all know what I mean, right? But you also, earlier, you mentioned narrative, and I think that's why narratives are so important as well, because it allows us to see through some of the jargon, and we get to humanize experiences, and so if I'm not engaged in violence in any manner, right, but I can read about the story about someone who has been impacted and they're a survivor, what have you. And I think again, it allows us to see people for who they are and acknowledge that we all need some support and should be willing to provide it as it's needed.
Mighty Fine:So totally on board with you on that one. I'll spare you all my diatribe and get back to what we're here for. And in addition to sort of what you all shared, I think it would be helpful for our listeners thinking about members like myself, partners, we talked about, sort of expanding our reach so partners who are listening in or for the folks. So I'm sure we'll share this with partners who need to be listening in. But thinking about that, tell us about some of the work that you all are doing relevant to shared risk and protective factors for any allied work that you've been involved in,
Catherine Guerrero:Yeah, Eva, you want to jump in. I mean, even leading this work, like I said, I'm new, I'm the new kid on the block, but, you know, I've been working with Safe States as a partner. But really, Eva has been leading a lot of the robust work happening in Safe States. So.
Eva Bland:Yeah, yeah. So we, we've been doing a lot of different work, and it's changed over the years just based on, like, what we're hearing the need is in the field, and what people where confusion is what people need help with. So, you know, for a while we, and we still are doing quite a few different state assessments, where we go into states and we kind of learn from them and hear from them what resources they have to move this kind of upstream prevention work forward and where there's barriers that exist. And from those assessments, where, hopefully we like to help provide some ta work, and Catherine has been huge, hugely instrumental in that, and has done ta with a lot of different states, a lot of different partners that we have, and from that work, you know, we've really at Safe States have a unique view of what upstream prevention looks like and what shared risk and protective factor work looks like across the country, because we get to hear from each state where they are with the work and where those barriers and challenges are and where those resources are. So that's been a really, really helpful for us in kind of thinking about what kind of resources we want to develop, what people need help with, in terms of training and technical assistance with these things. So from that, you know, we've, we've developed some resource guides around evaluating upstream prevention. We have resource guides on blended and braiding of funds. We've spoken to many different partners about that, done different presentations around it. You know, we have developed a lot of different resources that speak to shared risk and protective factor approaches and upstream prevention, as Catherine has been talking about, we have. And from that, we ended up developing, because we had all of these different resources, we said, Well, we really need to have one kind of site that houses them all. And so we developed a site called connections Lab, which had all and housed all of our shared risk and protective factor work, all of the work that we've been doing around upstream prevention. And our goal and aim was that it would be a guide to help people take some of the lessons that we've learned and apply them in their work. And so since that time, we've taken it a step even further, as we've realized, you know, shared risk and protective factor approaches. To the point Catherine was making earlier is just is work that we've been doing. We've been doing this work. We're calling it shared risk and protective factor approach, but it's just upstream prevention work. It's just primary prevention work, and it really should be integrated and all the things we we do, so it shouldn't be necessarily just a standalone site. You know, I think when you do that, people start to think, Oh, it's just one approach. It's just a one and done approach. It's, it's not an integral part of, you know the overall work. So in the last year, I have been working on with state. A lot of my Safe States colleagues. Shout Out Julie Alonso. Our Mapping IVP site, which takes all of these different concepts, all of the resources that we have on Safe States and outlines them in a way that can, in a way that hopefully it connects people and walks them through the foundation of what is injury and violence prevention, what does it look like in action? How does shared risk and protective factor approach tie into that, and how and what, and what does that actually look like, and how do we actually practice this work? So that's been a really big chunk of my time in the last year, is developing that site and trying to provide our resources in a way that is helpful and transferable to people. So, so, yeah, we, we've been doing a lot around this kind of stuff, and I know there's other things. I'm just that's the big that's the big piece right now, that where my mind is set, that that's the big project we've been working on.
Mighty Fine:Yeah, thanks for sharing that. As you were speaking, I was listening, but also getting excited, because I think it makes total sense that Safe States discharge, and also you all have so many resources. I know as a member, I'm always on the site trying to find something. So this is a way of sort of connecting all those dots for folks like me who are members and more, so for people who are working at the state level. The other thing that really resonated with me is that you talked about so org, what you said made me recognize, like this wide view that safe, safe task, right? And thinking about that this work has been going on, we're just sort of terming it something differently, so it helps folks to sort of make that connection. But I also recognize that using my own experience, coming from New York City, right, there's tons of people, and then moving to a western part of Pennsylvania where my block it felt like my block came from New York to fit into the town that I moved into. And so I say that to say that they were dealing with the same issues. Right when we talk about injuries and violence, and it may have looked a little bit different for each of those jurisdictions. However, there was a lot of synergy between the two. But on the outset, you sort of think like, Oh no, that's not that doesn't happen here. That wouldn't work here. But I think resources like you've elevated and just your work more broadly allows us to understand those connections and provides a forum for us to learn from each other and build upon our learnings to use as models for other places when it comes to whether we're talking about upstream prevention or shared risk. So pardon that tangent, but as you were speaking, it got me excited, because I could use myself as a case example of how the work that you're doing is reflective of what my needs were and are. So I just wanted to open the floor to see if there's anything else that you'd like to share about your work that you're doing again, or that you've done with shared risk and protective factors.
Catherine Guerrero:Yeah. I mean, I think, I think I would say a couple things. I think, you know, the point that Eva just made is important that, you know, this isn't wholly new work, right? Like this is a lens we're applying to the work that we're already doing. And part of the reason I say that is because one of the one of the pieces of feedback we get a lot from people is, you know, really struggling to think about how to operationalize this, right? So if I'm, you know, if I'm a program manager sitting in my desk at 11:30 on Wednesday morning, what does this look like? What am I doing, right? How is it different or the same? And so we're, you know, there's still we. I mean, even though states have been doing this for a long time, right? There are some states that have been at this for 20 years, trying to build programs and build their infrastructure in this way. There's a lot of room and a lot of opportunity to kind of think through how this works, and what is the next right thing, right? Or what is the next right step here? So, you know, even I were talking this morning about, sort of, we wish for a better literature base, right? So I think there's a lot of opportunity here for researchers, for evaluators, to kind of think about, how does this approach change the way we measure the how does it change what data we collect, how we collect that data, and thinking about, again, connecting this to what's already happening in communities, right? So recognizing, recognizing this work when we see it, no matter what people are calling it, right? So I think there just, there's an enormous amount of opportunity here. And I'm hopeful, right? I mean, it's a hard time to be hopeful, but I'm hopeful that that this is, this is maybe part of our, part of our, part of what we can build out of this hard time, right? I'll phrase it that way, is that, you know, we can learn to see connections and learn to make connections that we that either weren't available to us or weren't obvious to us before this, this idea that that we can, that we can look at our work with fresh eyes, right? That we can look at this hard future or this hard now, and see a future that's has some change in it, some creativity and some shift in it that could benefit us all right, in terms of, and I don't mean to make light of what's happening now, but I think trying to figure out how to, how to kind of get through not just, not just The obvious kind of challenges around funding, but thinking about trust in public health, thinking about, again, how we build relationships with communities, how we are partnering with communities, how we're talk about the work we do. You know, those things I think are really present for us now, right? And that's where I think there's some rich opportunity in adopting a lens like this as we move forward with our work.
Mighty Fine:Yeah, totally. And I agree with you in the sense that we acknowledge that things are as they are, and what shifts and changes to do to ensure that we can navigate as best as possible and keep safe, healthy, injury free, all of those things, and thinking about it in the present. But to your point, or at least what I gathered from what you shared, is also thinking about future and innovation. You know, there's some things that we were doing that maybe could change or be refreshing in some manner, and I think now is the right time for us to think about, how do we create change, and how do we sustain it, but also be open to innovation a long way. Just because we did things one way doesn't have to stay that way, right? Just because we call something this term or whatever, doesn't mean that that doesn't need to change to get with the times as as it said. But I'm right there with you in the space of innovation, being proactive, reactive when necessary, right? But also setting us, setting ourselves up to be proactive and visible so people recognize the great work folks like you are continuing to do, even in the most challenging,
Eva Bland:Absolutely, Mighty I think that's really well put. And I would say the public health field in general, is an innovative field. We have continued to innovate and change as data changes, as environments change. So this is just another time of innovation and change that we're facing
Mighty Fine:Absolutely well, those are all the questions that I have. This was really great. I learned a lot. I really want to implore folks to check out some of those resources that you mentioned, we'll make sure that links are available to them as well. And this is sort of my call to members or folks listening in, really maximize your membership as a member of Safe States, there are tons of resources, brilliant staff members who are working for us in this space. So I just want to again implore you to tap in.
Catherine Guerrero:Oh, just, I just wanted to say we also want to hear from folks. From folks, so reach out as well. Use the resources by all means, but definitely reach out. Let us know if you're doing this work, or you're doing research, or we would, we would love to also just kind of keep connected with what's happening out there as well,
Mighty Fine:All right. Well, I think that's a great way to end like, let's stay connected, right? But again, thank you both for sharing space and time with me today. It's been a pleasure, and I look forward to remaining in connection and collaboration with you all.
Catherine Guerrero:Thanks so much, Mighty.
Eva Bland:Thanks, Mighty.
Mighty Fine:That's a wrap for this episode of IVP in depth, and thanks for listening a special thank you to Eva and Catherine for the great conversation. I'd also like to thank our sponsor, the Alaska Division of Public Health. We want to thank them for supporting this conversation and their commitment to injury and violence prevention. Learn more about the outstanding work that they're doing by checking out their website@health.alaska.gov. If you're not already a Safe States member, now's the perfect time to join be part of a community working to create safer, healthier communities for everyone. Check out our website@safestates.org for a range of resources, including toolkits, training opportunities and other useful information designed to support your work in the field. Also don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. You can join us on Apple or Spotify, and while you're at it, leave us a review to let us know how we're doing again. Thank you for tuning in, and we'll see you next time. Until then, stay safe and injury free.